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To update and expand Census.IRE.org, a tool for journalists to easily find Census and other information about communities

Despite the high value of Census data, the U.S. Census Bureau’s tools for exploring the data are difficult to use. A group of news developers built Census.IRE.org for the 2010 Census to help journalists more easily access Census data. Following early positive feedback, the team will expand and simplify the tool, and add new data sets including the annual American Community Survey, which informs decisions on how more than $400 billion in government funding is distributed.

Project Team

Joe Germuska

Joe Germuska is a senior news application developer for the Chicago Tribune. He leads development of special online projects that amplify the impact of Tribune investigations, as well as stand-alone projects such as the award-winning Tribune Schools site and the new Crime in Chicago project. He was also a board member for the Knight News Challenge-funded PANDA project.

John Keefe is the senior editor for data news and journalism technology at WNYC, New York Public Radio. He is part of WNYC’s Data News Team, which helps infuse the station’s journalism with data reporting, maps, interactive applications and crowdsourcing projects. Keefe led WNYC’s news operation for nine years and grew its capacity for breaking news, election coverage and investigative reporting. His career also includes time as a police reporter at two Wisconsin newspapers, as science editor for Discovery Channel Online and as president of a small digital production company. He blogs at johnkeefe.net.

Ryan Pitts is the senior editor for digital media at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash. He works with a newsroom Web team that built the newspaper’s content-management system, works with reporters and editors on data projects, and continues to develop mapping, multimedia and revenue-generating tools for local journalism. Pitts worked as a reporter, print designer and editor at two Northwest newspapers before moving into online journalism full time in 2002. He was a board member for the Knight-funded PANDA Project, and is currently working with Knight-Mozilla OpenNews to help build Source, a site covering the journalism and coding community.

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Knight Foundation supports transformational ideas that promote quality journalism, advance media innovation, engage communities and foster the arts. We believe that democracy thrives when people and communities are informed and engaged.